


Hurricane

by theladyscribe



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Mark I Glory Days, Out of Order Narrative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 20:22:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5511839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theladyscribe/pseuds/theladyscribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lyosha first meets Alexandra Nestorova in the political prison in Siberia where he has been assigned to finish out his military duty. She is thin but fierce, a wiry creature with sharp eyes and a sharper tongue. She spits insults at him and his partner as they patrol the hall of cells.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hurricane

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kuro49](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuro49/gifts).



> A note on names: since this is from Aleksis' POV, I used the diminutive "Lyosha" rather than his formal name. And since I could not find a surname for Sasha, I picked one from a list of Russian surnames.
> 
> Many thanks to V and S for the last-minute beta work.

8.

Lyosha and Sasha arrive in Vladivostok on a warm day in late June. They have been through Jaeger pilot training, have sweated and worked and Drifted, and now they are here, standing at the entrance of their new home, waiting to see their new Jaeger for the first time.

"It's not as cold as I thought it would be," Sasha says.

Lyosha looks down at her. "I'm sure that will change once winter is here."

She grins up at him. "I don't think I will notice even then. Not if I have you here with me."

 

1.

Lyosha first meets Alexandra Nestorova in the political prison in Siberia where he has been assigned to finish out his military duty. She is thin but fierce, a wiry creature with sharp eyes and a sharper tongue. She spits insults at him and his partner as they patrol the hall of cells. She threatens to go on a hunger strike, though she never follows through on her threat.

Perhaps she would have, if the Kaiju had not attacked that summer, destroying parts of San Francisco. The news hits and most of Russia seems to think that the attack is retribution for the United States' bullying.

Lyosha is unconvinced, but he keeps his mouth shut and continues to go about his duties.

 

5.

It is in the aftermath of the attack on Vancouver that _everything_ changes.

Lyosha is given a promotion, recalled from the prison, and sent to further training on the coast of the Black Sea. He doesn't know why he has been chosen, but he was not expecting to be selected to train for the Pan Pacific Defense Corps' new Jaeger program. And he certainly was not expecting to find Alexandra Nestorova among the recruits.

Lyosha isn't sure she recognizes him at first. He is disabused of this notion when she comes up to him after one of their training exercises and says, "You thought you'd seen the last of me, didn't you?"

Lyosha tries not to reveal any emotion, but he says, "I thought they would drop you in the ocean to see if the Kaiju would find you tasty."

Alexandra Nestorova stares at him long enough to be unnerving before she bursts into laughter. "I am far too much trouble for a Kaiju to want to eat me," she says. She holds out her hand. "You should call me 'Sasha'."

"Lyosha." He takes her hand and gives it a firm shake. "I'm glad to meet you again."

 

3.

Besides the less-crowded cells, there are other changes to the prison where Lyosha is stationed. Doctors begin running medical tests on the prisoners — brain scans and neural exams and psychological tests. Nothing painful, from what Lyosha can tell, though he admittedly does not view the tests himself, only brings the prisoners requested into the medical lab.

Some of the prisoners are returned to their cells, while others are taken somewhere else.

Lyosha is not on duty the day they take Alexandra Nestorova from the prison, but he sees the broken nose she gave to Kolya as he put her on the transport.

Lyosha asks Kolya as obliquely as possible if he knows where they have taken the woman.

"I hope they plan to throw her in Hell," Kolya spits, gingerly touching the bridge of his nose.

 

6.

The training for the Jaeger program is nothing like what Lyosha expected. He thought it would be more of what he had gone through while in the Russian Armed Forces, and while some of it is similar, much of it is very, very different.

There are language lessons — Japanese and English and Filipino — and mathematics and oceanography, as well as the more familiar martial arts and weaponry. There are also robotics and mechanics courses, and seemingly endless hours of psychological evaluations.

Lyosha hates the psychological tests most of all. He understands the reason for them — the Jaegers require rigorous mental training as well as physical — but he finds them tedious and dull.

Sasha finds them tedious as well, and the two of them spend many hours commiserating over their annoyance.

Perhaps this is why they are matched when the Drift compatibility tests are held.

 

2.

It is the attack on Manila that convinces Lyosha to sit up and take notice of the rest of the world. One monster from the depths of the sea is an aberration, a strange occurrence for strange days, but a second?

A second might be coincidence, but a second attack in six months when there have never been such things recorded before seems to be more than a coincidence.

The Kremlin seems to think so as well, and there are rapid changes made to Lyosha's station. Some of the other guards are recalled for additional training, and before long, prisoners are being selected to fulfill their sentences elsewhere. Lyosha does not know where the prisoners go, and he knows better than to ask.

He is certainly _not_ relieved to find that Alexandra Nestorova remains in her cell, her smile wicked as he paces the hall.

 

4.

After they have tested all the prisoners, the military begins running tests on its soldiers, the same sort of tests Lyosha heard they had been running on prisoners. He is among the selected candidates, which means that they take him into the same lab where they had taken Alexandra Nestorova and the other prisoners they tested. They put him through psychological evaluations the likes of which he has not been through since he first entered the Russian Armed Forces.

After they finish the psychological evaluation, they put Lyosha through a medical exam — something far more familiar to him than the neural exam.

They send him back to work, and Lyosha thinks that will be that. He puts it out of his mind and resumes his duties.

 

7.

The Drift is strange. They warn Lyosha and Sasha both that it can be overwhelming and that it is easy to RABIT, especially if the neural bridge is unstable, but for Lyosha, it is like sinking into a warm bath after a long day. He catches flickers of Sasha's past — he has a fleeting thought that he should ask her about her time with Roscosmos — and he is sure she sees much the same from him, his mother cooking pelmeni, his father teaching him to fish, his time in the Armed Forces.

Their first Drift is short, just a test, but when Lyosha looks at Sasha afterward, he knows it won't be their last.


End file.
